Act against the corrupt, Dr. JP tells CM

Alleging there are many, many Nira Yadavas among civil servants in Andhra Pradesh, Lok Satta Party President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan today demanded that the Andhra Pradesh Government amend the Prevention of Corruption Act to facilitate swift, sure rigorous punishment of the culprits including forfeiture of illegally acquired property.

(Mrs. Nira Yadav was a former Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary, whom a CBI Court has sentenced to four years in jail and a fine).

(The Andhra Pradesh Legislature is to hold its winter session from December 10).

Addressing a media conference, Dr. JP said that the corrupt posed a greater threat to the country than terrorists. The nation had displayed remarkable maturity and wisdom in not succumbing to the terrorists’ designs to trigger communal clashes by detonating a bomb during ‘aarati’ at a Varanasi ghat last night.

Dr. JP described the CBI raids on the residences of former Telecom Minister A. Raja and his colleagues as dogs barking six months after thieves have bolted. Praising Mr. Gopalakrishnan, a cub reporter of Pioneer, for having unearthed the telecom scam, Dr. JP charged the mainstream political parties with indulging in shadow-boxing, instead of finding ways and means of recouping the loss the nation has sustained and preventing such scams in future.

The Lok Satta in association with some eminent people of unimpeachable integrity is filing a in the Supreme Court seeking cancellation of the tainted 2-G spectrum licenses and their fresh allocation on international competitive bidding.

The Lok Satta Party, he recalled, had submitted a draft Bill to amend the Prevention of Corruption Act to both the then Speaker and now Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy and Opposition leader N. Chandrababu Naidu. He hoped they would act now at least to mitigate ubiquitous corruption in the State.

Dr. JP wanted the Andhra Pradesh Government to review all its schemes so that scarce financial resources could be better utilized. He instanced how the Government was going ahead with the Rs.3600-core, unviable, unreliable and time-consuming Yellampalli drinking water scheme to quench the thirst of Hyderabad, abandoning the Krishna water scheme that could be completed in a year at a cost of Rs.700 crore. He questioned the viability and desirability of the Pranahita-Chevella and the Dummugudem schemes. The transfer of the Godavari water into the Krishna basin with the construction of the Polavaram project is desirable to serve the needs of Telangana and Rayalaseema districts. However, we should have an open mind about how it can be executed at least cost and with maximum advantage, and integrated and rational utilization of the State’s water resources. It has also to ensure quality power to farmers through decentralized distribution. The Lok Satta has demonstrated through a pilot project that transmission and distribution losses can be cut and quality power supply ensured through decentralized distribution.

Dr. JP expressed his deep sympathies to farmers and tenants who have suffered huge losses because of unusual and heavy rains in December. Asking them not to succumb to despair, he appealed to the Government to go to their rescue by granting an input subsidy of Rs.4000 an acre and interest-free loans for raising the second crop and arranging for procurement of rain-damaged paddy by relaxing norms up to 25 percent.

Lok Satta Party Working President D.V.V.S. Varma, General Secretary V. Laxman Balaji, Secretary P. Bhaskar Rao share the dais with Dr. JP